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Saturday, December 20, 2014

My Favorite Songs of 2014: Part Two

It was definitely Songs > Albums this year. Mostly because I just didn't have time to get too invested in more than a handful of albums (more on that next week, or after Christmas, or whenever I can sneak away from Dad Duty to write up the list) and relied a lot on "Siri, Shuffle Songs." These were my favorites (obviously).25. Sun Kil Moon – “Carissa” (Benji)

Just listen to Benji,
ok? I don’t care if you think it’ll make you sad, it’s one of the purest
depictions of the human experience you’ll find anywhere. It wasn’t my favorite
record of the year, but it was the best album of the year.

24. TV on the Radio – “Careful You” (Seeds)

TV on the Radio got flak for Seeds being just regular great. Pff, this record was outstanding,
which is really the expectation when it comes to a band as innovative and
badass as TVOTR, but even the people who were like “ITS NOT AS GOOD AS RETURN
TO COOKIE MOUNTAIN” gotta admit “Careful You” is the motherfucking jam.

23. Conor Oberst – “Time Forgot” (Upside Down Mountain)

Conor Oberst, doing what he do, aging like wine. And not
Trader Joes wine either! Like, good wine. I used to think Oberst peaked with
Bright Eyes’ I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning,
but now I don’t even know anymore. “Time Forgot” is another beautiful gem from
someone who might prove to be his era’s Dylan.

22. The Menzingers – “In Remission” (Rented World)

No other song this year made me want to pump my fist in the
air as hard as this song. Give it a whirl and try to keep your fists balled up
at your sides. I dare you.

21. Mac DeMarco – “Let Her Go” (Salad Days)

If people thought Mac DeMarco was some sort of goofy idiot
before Salad Days, well, actually,
people might still think he’s a goofy idiot. I still think of him as a sort of
idiot savant. A poet in clown shoes. And that can hardly be an insult because
whatever he’s doing, it’s obviously working. “Let Her Go” is so addictive, and
a beautiful contrast to all the “I gotta get her back!” songs flooding the sad
rock dude landscape. God, that slack guitar is the most comforting thing in the
world right now.

20. Spoon – “Inside Out” (They Want My Soul)

“Inside Out” is a technical masterpiece. Go listen to the
episode of the Song Exploder podcast where Jim Eno talks about how they put
this one together. It’s fascinating. It’s like finding out you can manufacture
true love in a lab or something. Making one of the more seductive, intriguing
tracks out of studio magic.

19. The War on Drugs – “Burning” (Lost in the Dream)

The War on Drugs live on feelings we’ve already had for
other bands and they barely even bother to retool it for the modern era. The
point is we always crave big anthems meant to be blared from American cars
blitzing down two lane highways in the middle of the night. Essentially, the
War on Drugs are doing for Springsteen-esque anthem music what Fleet Foxes did
for Appalacian folk a few years back: nothing new, but who gives a shit it’s
really fucking good. Whenever I had to drive home from work late and my podcast
ended a couple miles from home, I would say “Siri, play Burning by the War on
Drugs.” And then Siri would get confused because that technology is straight
fucked and doesn’t work, so I’d pull over, find “Burning” and put it on repeat
to guide me home. I’ve still got complicated feelings for Lost in the Dream, but the one thing I can’t deny is that it’s an
immensely satisfying record and that is honestly the only thing that matters.
Fuck hierarchy or whether or not it’s contributing anything new to the sonic
landscape. This is the shit you crave.

18. The New Pornographers – “Brill Bruisers” (Brill Bruisers)

Carl Newman operating at a high level, as usual. It’s all
very nuts and bolts. It’s what you expect from the New Pornos, and it’s like
getting my favorite dish from my favorite restaurant: a total fucking pleasure.

17. Frontier Ruckus – “A&W Orange and Brown” (Sitcom Afterlife)

I think I’m drawn to “A&W Orange and brown” over the
other, more single-y tracks from Sitcom
Afterlife because it’s the closest thing to the long-form storytelling that
made Eternity of Dimming my favorite
record of 2013. I don’t think I was ready for a new one, so I was a little off
guard and maybe I’m defaulting to my comfort zone (note: I love the record, as
you’ll see when I release my favorite albums list next week) but good lord this
track is so good. I find myself whistling its melody, worshipping those
newfound boy-girl harmonies, and trying to keep back my bafflement that this
band isn’t more beloved.

16. Aaron Freeman – “Covert Discretion” (Freeman)

In case you wanted to know why Ween broke up, Gener went and
gave you the answer on his first proper solo record. It’s a brutally honest
tale of rock and roll dreams gone awry, and a man coming to terms with crushing
that dream to break the cycle of addiction that only ends in death. “Fuck you
all, I gotta reason to live and I’m never gonna die,” he sings to…well,
everyone.

15. Bob Mould – “The War” (Beauty & Ruin)

If it’s still up, listen to Bob Mould’s episode of the WTF
podcast. Not only is it a fascinating look into the guy’s life, but he plays an
acoustic version of this track at the end and I was rapt. It got me to give Beauty & Ruin a thorough spin, and
further deepened his status as one of my idols. I feel like his power chords are the Rosetta Stone for decoding the sonic touchstones in my life. Or maybe the tone of those chords is my spirit animal. Either way, there is something about them, then and now, that resonates down to the very center of my being.

14. Cloud Nothings – “I’m Not Part of Me” (Here and Nowhere Else)

Cloud Nothings was one of the only bands I saw live this
year, and I thought the band seemed burnt out. But when they played this song,
through their touring haze, it was still electric. It’s a track that possesses
both immediacy and a tremendous amount of depth in its franticly chiming power
chords, repeated lines, thundering drums, thumping bass, and howling vocals. It
feels like true catharsis all the way through.

13. Perfume Genius – “Queen” (Too Bright)

Mark Hadreas is no stranger to these lists. At this point,
whenever I see that there’s a new Perfume Genius record coming out I pencil it
in to my best of. It’s not surprising that he keeps getting better and more
inventive on each successive album. It’s the status quo. For someone who’s
first record was just him and a piano and a fistful of the most heartbreaking
songs you’ve ever heard, the sonic prowess of “Queen” is a revelation. It’s one
of the most gripping tracks of the year.

12. La Dispute – “For Mayor of Splitsville (Rooms of the House)

This song feels like getting punched in the face for three
and a half minutes. The guitars stab at you, the singer yells at you, it’s a
pummeling. And the centerpiece from an emotionally exhausting concept album. It’s
knotty and a little voyeuristic feeling as you stare in at a whole bunch of
human wreckage. Who needs weapons when you can hurl around pointed lines like, “I’d
rather run for mayor of Splitsville/ Than suffer your jokes again.”

11. Sturgill Simpson – “Turtles All the Way Down” (Metamodern Sounds in Country Music)

On the surface, Sturgill Simpson might sound like an outlaw
country revivalist with vocal cords made of solid gold, but the introspective,
metaphysical, and psychedelic content of“Turtles All the Way Down” sets the table for one of the year’s best
deepest records.

Burn Your Fire for No
Witness earns its keep in the top ten records of 2014 with it’s more
smoldering moments, but the fuzzy crunch of the guitars on the brisk
“Forgiven/Forgotten” is the album’s most accessible track. The hook. The brief sampling that leads you down the rabbit hole into one of the most devastating records of
the year.

9. The Hotelier – “The Scope of All This Rebuilding” (Home, Like Noplace is There)

Home, Like Noplace is
There is the emo revival record of the year. God, that’s gonna sound so
stupid in two years. It already sounds stupid, “emo revival.” But I got no
better words. This is powerful shit. “The Scope and All This Rebuilding” is the
most dynamic track, and the one that cracks the album wide open and lays bare
all the heavy shit inside. There are heavier moments and deeper truths within
the album’s quieter moments, but even those are connected to this one

8. Against Me! – “Black Me Out” (Transgender Dysphoria Blues)

It’s really sort of a shame that Laura Jane Grace’s
transitioning overshadows how fucking great that new Against Me! record is.
When the anarcho-punk heroes signed to a major label and released two
radio-ready mainstream rock records, it was safe to assume they were gone
forever. “Black Me Out” functions as both a brilliant/brutal fuck you to the
major labels (“I wanna piss on the walls of your house/ I wanna chop those
brass rings off your fat fingers/ As if you were kingmaker”) and dovetails
nicely with the album’s titular theme.

7. Cheap Girls – “7-8 Years” (Famous Graves)

Famous Graves is a remarkably solid indie rock record. No frills, ham and egger dude jams with killer hooks. I could have picked any song from this record, but the bonus track "7-8 Years" is the one I was humming to myself all year. Something in that line "I spent all of my money on this Vizio TV" gets me. That detail. Plus the chorus "So kick me in the kidneys really hard/ I'm gonna write my name in blood in the backyard" is just fantastic. This was actually the first Cheap Girls song I heard, because my track listing was accidentally reversed on iTunes. I thought "Damn, what a great opening track" only to realize it wasn't even technically on the album. But I've always admired bands whose b-sides are better than most bands' album stuff, so there you go.

6. Andrew Jackson Jihad – “Temple Grandin” (Christmas Island)

There’s no greater opening line than “Open up your murder
eyes and see the ugly world that spat you out.” Thus begins one of the year’s
most thoughtful, odd, ugly, and awesome records. I had to narrow AJJ’s
contribution to this list down from about seven tracks off of Christmas Island and only settled on
“Temple Grandin” because it serves as a sort of thesis statement. On the
songwriting front this year, amidst so many amazing contenders, Sean Bonnette’s
heart was the purest.

“Avant Gardener” is of the more fun and inventive story songs I’ve heard in a while. A tale of getting off of one’s ass, getting back to nature and…having this new life in gardening cut short by a severe allergic reaction. The chilled out slacker vibe of Barnett’s blend of indie rock and the refrain of “I’m having trouble breathing in” maybe makes this the ultimate anthem for one’s mid-twenties. Ace. Also, I’m totally aware this is a track from 2013, but I think it’s that
goddamn good it transcends “years.”

4. Open Mike Eagle – “Doug Stamper (Advice Raps)” (Dark Comedy)

The dark sense of humor on the aptly titled Dark Comedy is glorious. Open Mike Eagle
enlists his buddy (and one of the greatest comics of our day) Hannibal Burress
to craft a hilarious and self-aware piece of rap commentary.

3. Cymbals Eat Guitars – “Jackson” (LOSE)

My favorite thing about “Jackson” is that you feel like you’re in the backseat of the car where this song takes place. There’s this easy going lullabye quality to the song that perfectly captures a car ride, but then somehow turns into one of the biggest songs I heard all year. It morphs into a beautiful cacophony of guitars, the likes of which are rare on an increasingly electronic landscape. Also, the punch that comes at the end of the line “a delirious…KISS” is maybe my favorite moment on any song this year.

2. Mikal Cronin – “I Don’t Mind” (Polyvinyl 4-Track Singles
Series)

Sometimes the greatest songs get cast out into the void via
weird little singles series. Mikal Cronin’s Mcii
was a big miss on my part from 2013, but I spent the majority of the warm
months blasting it from my car stereo and on the deck. And yet, I’d be the
first to cop to listing Cronin so high as a means of righting that wrong, but
I’m not. This song somehow landed in my iTunes and after hearing it once (on
shuffle, of course) I took it with me wherever I go. It’s as majestic as
majestic pop bliss gets, and recorded on a 4-track no less! Cronin is an
alchemist, a wizard, a scholar, and a brilliant tunesmith and I can’t wait for
his next record.

1. The Hold Steady – “Oaks” (Teeth Dreams)

The Hold Steady have built their empire chronicling the life
and times of party people. There have been massive nights, party pits, and
killer parties. Sometimes people end up in chillout tents or (in the case of
Hallelujah, the protagonist of their masterpiece Separation Sunday) going through the ringer and coming through to
the other side a little bit broken but still mostly in tact. Teeth Dreams epic closer “Oaks” plays
like the dark reality of the kids on the corners and the hoodrat chicks. It’s a
tragic portrait of junkies adrift, culminating in a metaphor involving a
mountain of trees turning to smoke aided by a colossal, mournful guitar riff
punctuating the heartbreak.